Metaphase

The nest vanished into the crater's depths.

Nerno's shell slipped from space into transition. J.D. perceived the change, a change in angle down the knowledge surface, from an oblique traverse to a headlong plunge.

She had to choose now: To travel with the ancient glacier along the smooth, long ice slope, or to plunge into the choppy, dangerous terrain of the new algorithm.

She guided Nerno's shell into new territory.

J.D. felt like a chambered nautilus, shelled and tentacled, extending herself far beyond her own body, exquisitely sensitive. The shell found the pathway she sought and fitted itself to the jagged curve.

J.D. felt exhilarated, yet frightened. She believed she was following Starfarer's path . . . but she could not be absolutely certain.

As she thought of the starship, she thought'she saw it--or heard it, or felt it, with a sense Nemo had possessed but humans lacked. An anomaly appeared in the part of the knowledge surface that represented transition. The anomaly vanished, then appeared again, like a train chugging down the track into a valley and out of it again.

The anomaly distracted her. She wanted to catch up to it, to be sure it was Starfarer and to be sure she kept following it. She knew she could make Nemo's shell catch up to the anomaly. That surprised her. Starfarer had never tried to change its vectors from the time it achieved transition energy to the time it re-entered normal space.

J.D. restrained herself. One experiment was enough for any trip.

She drew her attention back toward herself, back within Nemo's shell. She was trembling with excitement. She breathed deeply of air tinged with the hydrocarbondrenched odor of Nemo's ship. She sneezed.

I'll have to do something about the atmosphere, she thought. Nemo isn't creating it anymore. Will I be able to terraform the shell, like Europa's ship? Again she wondered how Europa had acquired her starship, and how she had configured it to her liking. Surely starships were a booming business within Civilization.

Sally's Used Starships, J.D. said to herself. Gort's Starship Redecoration. J.D. laughed. She laughed, and then she cried for a while.

She extended her attention to the edge of Nemo's shell, and stretched beyond-

She discovered that Nemo's last two egg cases had detached and vanished, leaping off into transition while her thoughts were elsewhere.

Frantically J.D. cast her new senses around her, but caught no glimpse of the egg cases, no hint of them anywhere in transition's many dimensions.

The anomaly of Starfarer glimmered in the distance, but nothing else marred the knowledge surface.

"Nemo, I'm so sorry. . . ."

She had failed. She should somehow have held on to the two cases until she reached the new star system and normal space,

But now they were gone.

Despite being able to look straight into transition, Victoria felt blind. The environment flung Starfarer's radar back only a few meters from the surface of the cylinder. They might as well have been traveling through murky water without sonar. Starfarer had no sonar capabilities, of course, though Victoria would have tried it if it were available.

I can just imagine what Senator Derjaguin would have said if we'd outfitted a spaceship with sonar, she said to herself.

Starfarer was taking samples of the transitional medium, but Victoria did not think the samples would reveal a material medium, an ether, that would respond to sonar.

The source of the light storm was another mystery entirely.

Jenny hovered nearby. She had returned to the sailhouse a few minutes ago, looking refreshed, looking better than she had since Starfarer left the solar system. A few other people had come out to the sailhouse to watch what was happening. Victoria wished Satoshi and Stephen Thomas were with her. But Satoshi was in the observatory waiting for a first glimpse of the new system, and Stephen Thomas . . . Victoria had no idea where Stephen Thomas was. That was true more often than not these days.

As abruptly as a blink, Starfarer fell out of transition.

Victoria whooped with triumph and relief. She dove into Arachne's perceptions. Starfarer remained in danger: Europa's ship might be anywhere. Last time through transition, it had come out immediately on Starfarer's tail. The sail gave the starship some mobility, but no description of Starfarer would call it agile. It was Europa's ship that had dodged, turning aside from Starfarer just as the two spacecraft were about to collide.

Arachne pinpointed a nearby anomaly: a sphere, blue and green and hazed with atmosphere, far too massive for its size, an asteroid biologically and geologically sculpted to house humans comfortably.

Arachne expanded the anomaly: Europa's starship, only a short distance ahead.

We made up a lot of time, Victoria thought. A lot.

Starfarer's sail deployed. The metallic film untwisted, then unfolded, then opened into a great sheet of silver.

Jenny was nowhere near the hard link. Her eyelids fluttered open and she glanced at Victoria, and grinned, and shrugged self-deprecatingly, as if to say, "I couldn't resist Arachne anymore," and withdrew again into a communications fugue.

Satoshi's image appeared.

"Can you look at the astronomy report?" His voice radiated excitement. "Sure." She let Arachne send her the first information from 61 Cygni A and its planets.

The system crackled with electronic communication. When Victoria glanced at the planetary information, she gasped.

61 Cygni A possessed no fewer than four planets within the limits for carbon-based life: two sets of twin worlds, one set at the sunward side of the region, the other just within the farthest, coldest limits.

All four worlds possessed the unmistakable signs of living systems. More than that, all four worlds cradled civilizations.

Victoria's elation and her apprehension fought each other to a draw. "Wow," she said.

"Don't get carried away with excitement," Awaiyar said dryly.

Satoshi laughed. "That's pretty excited, for a Canadian."

They grinned at each other. Then Satoshi sobered.

"We can't stay here, you know."

Victoria stared at the system map, wishing she could argue with him, but knowing he was right. If they stayed,

the cosmic string would withdraw. Starfarer would cause 61 Cygni-and all its inhabitants-to be cut off from the interstellar community. How could they sentence other civilizations to the punishment they were trying to avoid?

"But Starfarer's ecosystem She stopped.

"You're right. I know you're right."

She reluctantly set Arachne to work on a new solution to her transition algorithm.

"We're going to have to change the name of the ship," Satoshi said.

"To Murphy's Law, " Victoria said, repeating a wisecrack Stephen Thomas had made.

"I was thinking, Flying Dutchman.

"Oh, god. Goddamn! Europa must have known the risk! Why did she lead us here?"

"To take advantage of our good natures, so we'd give up and leave?"

"That makes . . . a certain amount of perverted sense." She laughed bitterly. "Does Europa believe we have good natures?"

"Maybe she wanted some help driving us away," Jenny said, floating beside her.

That, too, was a possibility, one that sounded rather more like the alien human's style.

Infinity stood on the inspection net below a fissure in the rocky outer surface of Starfarer's wild side. Nearby, clinging to the cylinder-hanging upside down, from Infinity's point of view-a silver slug probed the fissure, touched the strange iridescent mass, and withdrew again. The slug moved back and forth, confused, uncertain.

The stars spun past behind and below Infinity; the surface of the cylinder loomed overhead, marred by the weird growth.

"What do you think?" he asked Esther.

Still bewildered and awestruck by the voyage through transition, Esther stared upward in silence.

Infinity sent his image, and an image of the growth, to Victoria in the sailhouse.

"We picked up something kind of strange, in transition," he said.

There was a long silence.

"It wasn't there before," Infinity said.

"Are you sure?" Victoria asked.

"You can look at the scans if you don't believe me!" he snapped.

Esther glanced at him, startled. Infinity looked away, embarrassed by his own outburst.

"I didn't mean Victoria said. "I'm just sur

prised."

"Yeah. Join the club."

"Maybe it's interstellar trash," Esther said. "You know . . . Civilization's landfill?"

It was Infinity's turn to give Esther a skeptical glance. She shrugged and grinned.

"Just-a suggestion," she said.

She stretched up and laid her gloved hand on the bulging surface.

"Be careful!" Infinity said.

"It's kind of hot," Esther said. "And it's moving."

"It's one of Nerno's egg cases!" Zev's voice appeared out of nowhere, followed by his image.

"Oh, nonsense," Victoria said.

441t is.,,

"How could it be, Zev? It resembles one, but Nerno's egg cases are back in the Sirius system."

Griffith's image appeared. He and Kolya perched precariously on the inspection web of Starfarer's campus cylinder.

"I think we should get rid of it," Griffith said. "I'll go over and pry it loose-"

"No!" Victoria said. "Don't do anything. Do you hear me? Kolya, tell hirn-!"

"It might destroy the ship!" Griffith exclaimed. "It's a risk I-" "Petrovich, Victoria's right." "if it's one of the egg cases," Zev said, "J.D. will hate us if we kill it."

"We aren't killing anything," Victoria said. "Whatever it is, I think we should watch it for a while before we decide what to do. I wish J.D. .

. ~ " She stopped speaking for a moment. "Infinity, would you set Arachne to watch it? To keep an eye on it? Please don't you and Esther put yourselves in danger!"

"We'll be careful," Infinity said.

Starfarer disappeared from J.D.'s perception.

She gasped, first frightened, then hopeful. Starfarer must already have reached normal space on the other side of its flight path.

She waited impatiently to follow it across the border at the edge of transition.

Instead of fleeing, the alien starship decelerated. Soon Starfarer was gaining on it. The details of its surface grew clearer. Arachne displayed the pattern of its islands and lakes, confirming Victoria's judgment of its identity.

Unless, Victoria thought dryly, the interstellar community only makes its starships in a few models. . . .

Arachne's warm touch notified her of an emergency message. She accepted it.

The maze of the alien humans formed itself, twisting and complex, as fascinating and beautiful as ever. And as uncommunicative.

I hate that maze, Victoria thought, startling herself with her vehemence. The maze faded; Europa's image appeared in its place. The Minoan was exquisitely beautiful, her cinnamon-colored skin clear and perfect despite her age, the brightness and blackness of her eyes enhanced by narrow lines stroked onto her eyelids, her graying hair in perfect ringlets, dressed with strands of silver so artfully crafted that they moved like living things.

"It's beginning to look a little crowded in here," Jenny said.

The alien human, survivor of the Minoan civilization, smoothed her homespun skirt and smiled at Victoria as if she were a beloved, errant child.

"Hello, Victoria," Europa said. "I'm very glad to see you.

"Hello, Europa," Victoria said, astonished. "I didn't expect such a warm welcome."

"We have things to talk about."

Androgeos appeared beside her. He was as beautiful as Europa, though he maintained himself at a much younger apparent age. They were both small, about Victoria's height, narrow-waisted, and muscular, especially in the thighs. Victoria always wondered if they practiced bull-leaping.

"Is Alzena all right?" Victoria asked.

"Alzena is no concern of yours anymore," Androgeos said. His tone was nowhere near as friendly as Europa's. "Alzena is gone to you."

"Is she all right?"

"She wants her privacy," Androgeos said. "Can't you understand that?" "Certainly I can. Thank you for answering my question."

"Now answer mine," Androgeos said. "Do you intend to turn the Four Worlds into an empty system, the same as you've done to Sirius? There are people here, not just squidmoths."

Zev arrowed into the sailhouse, missed Jenny by a handsbreadth, passed rudely through the holographic images of the alien humans, touched off from the transparent wall, and came to a graceful, perfect stop beside Victoria. "What about-" Zev exclaimed.

"Shh!" Victoria said.

Zev grabbed her hand, panicked. Maintaining a calm expression took all Victoria's strength. She squeezed his fingers, trying to comfort him, but she was worried about J.D., too. If what Androgeos said was

true, if J.D. had not entered transition before the final withdrawal of the cosmic string, then she was stranded. Without the support of a living ecosystem, without supplies . . . she would die.

"If you're so worried about the Four Worlds," Satoshi asked, "why'd you lead us to them?"

"I'll explain that when I see you," Europa said. "May I visit? I'd like to talk to you face to face."

The terraformed, anomalously massive asteroid approached, changing its course without apparent effort, moving to draw Starfarer into orbit around it. Jenny turned the sail edge-on to the star, so the light pressure would not interfere with the gravitational attraction.

"A few days ago you couldn't wait to see the last of us. Why do you want to visit us now?"

"If you plan to chase Andro and me to the end of the universe, we have to come to some arrangement."

"Does anyone have any objections?" Victoria asked. Almost everyone on board would be listening to and watching the conversation.

The silence stretched out.

"I believe," Gerald Hemminge said, "that another conversation would be . . . an excellent idea."

"All right, then." Victoria did not, however, intend to let Gerald take over this encounter the way he had the last one. "Europa, you may bring your boat to Starfarer. "

Stephen Thomas struggled from his communications fugue. His brain felt bruised. He withdrew from Feral's temporary guest account, into the safety of his own permanent neural node.

Now he knew for certain that Feral's murder had been deliberate.

He was not certain he could prove it, not without subjecting someone else to the experience he had just been through. But he was certain it had happened.

Stephen Thomas was lucky. If he had matched Feral's profile better, if Arachne's unconscious memory of the search and destroy routine had echoed stronger, he would be dead. Expecting pain, constriction, nausea, Stephen Thomas took a deep breath, hesitated, and pushed himself to his feet.

His body responded. The aches had faded. His new claws itched with potential. The sharp stab to his pelvis had subsided and the awkward, embarrassing constrictions eased. He felt reborn: comfortable, powerful, exuberant.

Gingerly, apprehensively, he unfastened his pants and let them slide down his hips.

He no longer looked like an ordinary man. Nor did he look like a woman. His body had formed a neat pouch enclosing his genitals. He looked like he was wearing string bathing trunks, without the string. The line of dark gold hair below his navel widened into a sleek patch of thicker fur that tapered between his legs.

The new muscles responded to his thought. His penis, pink-gold and sensitive, probed beyond the opening and slipped through the soft fur.

The pain, even the threat of pain, evaporated.

He was tempted-but he let the extending muscles relax. When he tightened the retracting muscles, his penis slid back inside the pouch through the tantalizing texture of his fur.

Stephen Thomas fastened his pants and glanced at Arachne's display. Astonished by too much information to take in all at once, he forgot his own changes. A new star system. Four inhabited planets. Technological civilizations. And . . . Europa's boat approaching Starfarer, about to dock. The alien humans had returned, and half the alien contact department was not even there to meet them. J.D. had an excuse-he checked quickly; she had not caught up to Starfarer. Nemo's ship was nowhere to be seen.

Stephen Thomas hurried from his office.

Victoria's going to kill me for being late, he thought.

And if I tell her I was late because I was in the web pretending to be Feral . . . she'll kill me twice.

Out of habit, he glanced at the DNA sequencer as he headed out of the lab. It had finished working. He expected these results to be as confusing as all the others.

He stopped short.

All the conflicting results between the bacteria from alien, human, and alien human environments suddenly came clear to him.

The test samples were normal.

But the recent samples from Starfarer, the bacteria Stephen Thomas had used as a control, had changed. They had been contaminated.

Stephen Thomas flung his presence through Arachne and into the waiting room of the boat dock. Arachne created an image of the waiting room around him. He was standing, but everyone else was floating in zero g. Vertigo spun the image before him for a moment: it spun, but it did not move. He felt drunk.

The pressure equalized between Starfarer and Europa's boat; the hatch opened.

"Don't let them in!" Stephen Thomas exclaimed.

Europa floated into Starfarer. Androgeos followed, his pleated red kilt flowing around his legs. Gerald Hernminge shook their hands in greeting. Europa's meerkats bounced in after her.

"Oh, shit!" Stephen Thomas said.

"What a charming welcome, Stephen Thomas," Europa said. "How nice to see you again, too, and when did you get so tan?"

"You contaminated us!" Stephen Thomas said.

Everyone stared at him.

"Contaminated-7 Victoria said. "But we tested-"

Stephen Thomas ran his hands through his hair, pushing it out of his face; it had come loose again. The swimming webs smoothed the strands behind his ears.

"Are you an ichthyocentaur, too?" Europa asked, surprised. "Why didn't

I notice before?"

"T'he Chi came back clean," Stephen Thomas said. "But . . . I'm coming up there." Stephen Thomas withdrew his image from the waiting room.

Splashing through the muddy spots, wading across a bridge inundated by an overflowing creek, he strode down the path that led to Starfarer's end. He started to run, letting his anger at Europa-and his pleasure in his body-fuel his speed.

By the time Stephen Thomas reached the waiting room, floating in to join the visual cacophony of people, real and virtual, the atmosphere quivered with tension. The meerkats hovered together, each in sentry position.

"Explain yourself, Stephen Thomas," Professor Thanthavong said. He had never seen her so distraught.

"The bacteria have changed," Stephen Thomas said. "The free-living, garden variety soil bacteria. Sometime between now and the last time we took samples-"

"After the missile attack," Professor Thanthavong said. "As a precaution. What do you mean, 'changed'?"

"Their DNA fingerprints are the same. That's what confused me for so long." Everyone except Professor Thanthavong and Europa looked confused.

"When DNA mutates, the print changes. It's almost impossible to put in an alteration that doesn't change the print." He glanced at Europa with grudging admiration. "Quite an accomplishment-to make so many changes without changing the print. Clever. Subtle. Deliberate. Nothing showed up till I did a complete sequence."

"You shouldn't be angry," Europa said mildly. "I gave you the traditional gift for new members of the community."

"Some gift!" Stephen Thomas said.

"It protects your ecosystem!"

"It is unforgivable," Miensaem Thanthavong said.

"I would appreciate it," Victoria said, her voice soft

and tight, "if one of you would explain what you're talking about."

"They supercharged our bacteria," Stephen Thomas said.

Everybody looked at him like they thought he was crazy. We have too damn many specialists, he thought. I'll bet J.D. would know what I was talking about.

"So alien bacteria won't survive," he said.

"You should be grateful," Europa said. "You should pour wine to the gods for such a gift. We've solved a serious problem for you."

"You should have told us!" Professor Thanthavong said. "Asked us! How dare you introduce biological contaminants-!"

"The changed bacteria won't hurt you! They aren't any different from what you're used to, except that they're stronger. As long as they're in their own environment, alien autotrophs won't grow in their presence."

"Can we stop them?" Thanthavong asked.

"Of course not. That's the point."

"Your anger's normal," Androgeos said. He sounded disappointed in them all. "So ordinary. Can't you appreciate what we've done for you?"

"You've fixed it so we can't join the community-"

"You did that yourselves!"

11

-and maybe we can't go home, either."

"Wait a minute." Infinity's image appeared, its background stars and the inspection web. "Andro's fight. I wish Europeans had thought about the problem! Their diseases killed ninety percent of the people in the new world. . . . Europa and Androgeos didn't bring diseases. They brought prevention. Protection."

"I'm glad someone is sensible here," Androgeos said.

"We aren't monsters," Europa said. "We exist to help you join the community. Can't you give us a little help?"

"You should have told us," Thanthavong said stiffly. "Infinity may be right. You may be right. But you should have let us make the choice."

"I'm sorry." Europa sounded sincere.

"J.D.'s going to be really pissed off at you," Stephen Thomas said.

"I think you're all crazy!" Androgeos could restrain himself no longer. "You're objecting to bacteria, when your ship is infested with parasites!

I told you to avoid the squidmoths."

"Parasites?" Stephen Thomas said. "What parasites?"

"The squidmoth egg," Androgeos said.

Victoria nudged Stephen Thomas and gestured toward the small exterior display.

"Christ in a clutch," Stephen Thomas muttered. The thing bulged, moved, nestled deeper into its rocky cradle.

,,The squidmoths don't even bother to raise their children," Europa said. "You'll have a job prying it loose."

"Maybe you'll be lucky," Androgeos said, "and it'll die."

"I don't think so," Infinity said. "It's already changing. It's growing, and it's, I don't know, putting feelers down into the rock."

"Oh, great."

"We are * n't in any danger yet," Infinity said quickly.

"It's only half a meter down, and there's nothing vital anywhere near."

"You should destroy it," Androgeos said confidently.

"No," Victoria said. "Zev was right. J.D. will never forgive us if we destroy it." At least part of her urge to protect it was because Androgeos wanted to be rid of it. "What will happen if we leave it?"

"As you see Andro gestured toward-the im

age.

In the cross-section, mycelia from the egg case extended another handsbreadth into the substance of the wild side's shell.

"Ultimately, I mean. How big will it get?"

Andro shrugged. "Who knows? We have other things to do than follow the life cycle of a squidmoth."

"I want to talk about this," Europa said.

She reached into a deep pocket in her skirt, and drew out an age-mottled jawbone with unsettling proportions. It had lost all its teeth, except a single sharp fang.

"The art project," Gerald Hernminge said.

Europa gazed at Gerald fondly. "Your intelligence gives me hope for our species. Until I inspected the fossil myself, I was inclined to believe in the art project. Clever of you to disguise it so openly." She smiled at Stephen Thomas. "Rather like the bacteria. But this bone is real, it's very old, and it's of critical importance to Civilization. I must see where it came from."

Gerald started to say something. Stephen Thomas interrupted him.

"Why?"

"I believe you've found a clue to the other ones," Europa said. "The ones who came before us, and disappeared, except for their starships . . . and their control of the cosmic string."

"Good god," Stephen Thomas said, and thought: Now what?

"If you'll follow me," Gerald Hemminge said, "I'll take you to the . .

. the fossil bed."

On the path to the riverbank, Europa quickened her step. She allowed herself to look like a person well advanced in years, but she had the energy of a teenager. Her meerkats followed her, pacing at her heels or scampering to the top of a hummock to make a quick scan for predators. Victoria had to lengthen her stride to keep up.

"What do you expect to learn from the fossil bed?" Victoria asked Europa. She chose her words with care.

"I expect nothing," Europa said. "I hope . . . for some clue to their origin."

"If we found where they came from," Androgeos said, "we might discover how they control the cosmic string."

Victoria glanced at Stephen Thomas. He rolled his eyes. Victoria was glad the fossil bed was a fake; no matter what else happened, it would never lead Andro to a source of great power.

"And we might overcome the effects of the squidmoths' greed," Andro said. "The squidmoths!" Victoria said. "Why do you hate them so much? They didn't seem greedy to me-quite the opposite."

Victoria found herself on the side of the squidmoths. Europa and Androgeos respected Victoria because they believed she was descended from the Pharaohs, as they claimed to be. But she was descended from escaped slaves, and her family history included stories of abuse and discrimination, not worship and power.

"We don't hate them!" Europa said. "But . . . they're an old species.

Just because they've been around longer than the rest of us, they inherited the possessions of the other ones, the earlier star travelers." Satoshi frowned. "What possessions? The squidmoths aren't dragons, sitting on a pile of gold! We met one of the beings, we talked to it. We saw how it lived. If an earlier culture left it everything they owned .

. . they must have been Spartans."

"They left their starships, " Europa said. She watched Victoria's reaction, and Satoshi's. "You understand. The squidmoths inhabit the other ones' starships. Civilization is left as scavengers. We're dependent on their castoffs."

"Some squidmoths never travel to another star," Androgeos said. "They could live on any piece of rock." He flicked his fingers toward the image of Starfarer's wild side. "And obviously some of them aren't particular." "They never use the ships to their potential. And they won't sell!

There's nothing they want!"

"Then how do you get any of them?"

"We scavenge."

"Salvage, " Androgeos said.

"Sometimes you find the ships abandoned," Europa said. "Maybe the squidmoths die. Who knows?"

"If you're lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time . . ." The face of the beautiful youth took on a predatory look. Androgeos grinned suddenly, showing his teeth. "Every time we returned to Tau Ceti, we hoped that starship might be empty. It would have made our fortunes."

What will this mean for J.D.? Victoria wondered suddenly, worried all over again for her friend. What if someone else was lurking, hoping to steal Nerno's ship . . . and J.D. was in the way?

"You've already got one starship," Satoshi said. "What do you need another for?"

Androgeos glanced at him, annoyed. Satoshi always asked the alien human questions he preferred not to answer.

"It isn't a matter of needing it," Europa said quickly. "As Andro said, a starship is valuable. If the opportunity comes up . . . Why shouldn't we take it?"

Europa glanced at Victoria and chuckled softly.

"Ah, Victoria, my dear, you have such a low opinion of us. We got off to a poor start, and now you wonder if these ancient Minoans don't wait for a ship to be empty. Perhaps we're really pirates."

"The possibility . . . crossed my mind."

"Too bad we can't be," Androgeos said. "We'd be a lot richer."

"Good lord, what else do you need?" Satoshi exclaimed. "You have a starship, a whole world of your own, complete freedom-!"

"One likes to have respect, as well," Europa said. "So far, you haven't helped our position in the community." She glanced at the fossil bone in her hand; she stroked the fang with her index finger.

"Are you pirates?" Zev asked curiously.

Europa laughed. "No, young Zev, my ichthyocentaur. We're civilized people, we don't murder each other for possessions. Besides, the squidmoths are far from defenseless. They want you to think they're harmless voyeurs. But in their own way, they're quite powerful."

"And deceitful and selfish," Androgeos said.

"Look who's talking," Stephen Thomas muttered.

Androgeos glared at Stephen Thomas, but Europa smiled at him benignly. "There are stories, old, old, stories, of people with . . . fewer ethics than our company here, who pursued squidmoths through transition, hunting them for their ships. The squidmoths were seen again. The hunters were not."

They reached the canyon, where the path plunged down to the river bank. Crimson Ng sat alone on the canyon edge, gazing into the current.

The river had flooded. Dirty brown water rushed and raced past the cliff. It riffled past the rough tock, showering everyone with muddy spray.

On the other side, a section of cliff collapsed into the water. The wild current snatched the shattered stone downstream, then dragged it beneath the surface.

The tremendous sound of floodwater possessed a pressure all its own, a low, dangerous roar with a counterpoint of boulder percussion rising from the bottom of the river.

The current was often strong enough to move the fist-sized rocks that formed its bed and beaches. Walking beside the river, Victoria liked to listen to the click and roll of stones in water. But now the river was changing its contours to the background of a kettledrum symphony.

When the water finally fell, the rapids and the pools would all be changed. And so would the riverbank, where the fossils lay.

Europa stared into the water. Stricken, she glanced at Crimson.

"We've had some bad weather," Crimson said calmly.

"But the fossils-! The other ones-!"

"It all washed downstream," Crimson said. "We'll have to do salvage archaeology."

Europa sat disconsolately on the riverbank beside Crimson. Crimson gestured down into the muddy water where the fossils had lain, describing what she had seen but not yet excavated. Androgeos kicked the rocky edge of the cliff, as if he might uncover another fossil bed. Professor Thanthavong spoke quietly and urgently with Stephen Thomas. Satoshi and Victoria stood together, with Zev nearby. Gerald hovered near Crimson and Europa, no longer trying to maintain that the fossils were an art project. The meerkats foraged on the bank, sending up sprays of wet dirt as they dug for insects. One of them climbed to the top of a bush, chittering when a branch sprayed it with collected raindrops.

"I don't believe this," Satoshi said softly.

Victoria covered her face with her hands, afraid she would start laughing. An image coruscated around them: the rainbow edge of a transition spectrum. When it faded, Arachne projected the sight of Nerno's ship plunging into the star system.

"J.D.!" Zev was the first to welcome her. He whistled softly, a descending cascade of notes. He grimaced. "It doesn't sound right, in the air."

The gravity of Europa's ship had pulled Starfarer aside; the starcraft were in no danger of colliding. Victoria felt a rush of joy, unalloyed by fear. "Are you okay?" Victoria asked. "That is you-T'

They waited impatiently through the instant's timelag.

J.D.'s image appeared

"I'm here, Zev. I understood what you said. Me, too. Hi, Victoria."

"I'm so glad you're all right. What . . . what about Nemo?"

"Nerno's dead."

"J.D. . . . I'm so sorry." Victoria wished she were near enough to hug her friend.

"It's strange. . . . I'm sad, but I-is that Europa with you?"

"Hello, J.D.," Europa said. "You've lost a friend? I'm sorry."

"Thank you," J.D. said.

"How did you persuade the squidmoth to bring you here?" Europa asked.

"I didn't. The squidmoth-Nemo-died."

Androgeos swung around from the riverbank, his kilt swinging around his powerful legs. His feet were muddy to the ankles.

"I claim salvage!" he shouted.

"Salvage?" J.D. said. "What are you talking about?"

"The ship's abandoned. I claim salvage."

"My ffiend died and left the ship to me," J.D. said coldly. "It is not abandoned."

"Don't be selfish!" Androgeos pleaded. "It's useless to you,"

His usual tone of disdain vanished in his desperation; he spoke in the same tone as when he begged Victoria to give him her new algorithm.

"I'll come over and pith it, so we can harness it," he said. "Otherwise the Four Worlds will send out a salvage crew. What good can it do you?

You have to go back to Earth!"

"If I have to go back to Earth," J.D. said, "I'll take Nerno's ship with me."

"And just how do you propose to do that? Tow it with your pathetic sail?" The sailhouse trembled. A touch to Arachne showed that Europa's ship was moving again, curving its path in such a way as to fling Starfarer none too gently out of orbit.

"Hey, be careful!" Infinity said.

"Why should IT' Androgeos snarled. "You don't care enough about your ship to keep it clean of squidmoth spawn!"

J.D. looked confused. Victoria forwarded the silver slug's transmission to the Ch4 so J.D. could see it.

"We don't quite know what to do about it."

J.D.'s smile was radiant. "Don't do anything! Victoria, please-Nerno's other children are stranded back at Sirius."

"Don't worry. We won't hurt it."

"Prepare to receive me," Androgeos said to J.D.

"If you try to land here," J.D. said, deadly serious, "I'll spin you off into space, and you can walk home!"

Androgeos laughed. "It's easy to make threats. Not so easy to carry them out."

"Andro," Europa said slowly, "you are the one making empty threats. J.D. has learned squidmoth tactics already. Look."

"She can't-" Androgeos fell silent.

Slowly, deliberately, Nemo's starship began to rotate.

J.D. gave Nerno's shell a gentle spin. It was more than a demonstration to Androgeos; it was a first stage in terraforming. Rotation would gradually even out the temperature extremes that Nemo had preferred, frozen darkness giving way abruptly to a star's searing radiation.

J.D. moved the shell gently toward Starfarer. The transmission lag shortened to imperceptibility. She stayed distant, to moderate the gravitational stresses. Europa's craft had shaken Starfarer more than enough for one day.

Androgeos and Europa remained uncharacteristically silent. J.D. watched their images, amused by their surprise.

So you can still be surprised, even after four thousand years, she thought. That's some comfort.

Androgeos composed himself. When he spoke, he replaced his querulous tone with one of friendly, helpful persuasion.

"J.D.," Andro said, "Europa and I know how to refit an abandoned ship so you can navigate it."

"Don't beg, Andro," Europa said.

"But we could be partners-" "Listen to her! Look at it! She controls it, Andro!" J.D. turned toward Victoria. "Thank you," she said, without mentioning the transition algorithm aloud. Europa and Androgeos saw Nemo's shell as a valuable prize. No telling what they might do if they knew it possessed Victoria's transition algorithm as well.

"I'm so glad to see you," Zev said. "When can you come home?"

"I don't know," J.D. said. "All things considered . . . I don't think I'd better leave Nerno's ship just yet.,~

"It's your ship now," Zev said. "Nautilus.

Nautilus, J.D. thought. Of course. How could it be anything but Nautilus? She grinned at Zev.

"It's a relief to have you back," Victoria said. "I had second thoughts about leaving you behind as soon as it was too late. . . ." She said less than she might have, if Europa were not listening.

They had all become secretive around the alien humans. That troubled J.D., but she refused to let her concern overcome her excitement: Her first successful flight of Nautilus, the discovery of the last egg case, and a system of inhabited planets . . .

"I've had a pretty amazing time over here," J.D. said. "I'm looking forward to telling you all about it."

She wondered how long Starfarer could safely stay in the system, and whether the cosmic string would flee from her as well. She touched the knowledge surface-"Victoria . . . the cosmic string is staying stable!"

Twice before, the cosmic string had begun to withdraw as soon as Starfarer entered a star system. This time, it remained steady. Excited conversation burst up around her.

"But how do you know?" Victoria asked, amazed. "Arachne's still surveying-" "From Nautilus," J.D. said.

Victoria's eyelids flickered closed, then open, as she touched her link to the computer web. "I think you're right. . . ." "Are we forgiven?" J.D. asked Europa. "Is this our second chance?"

"I . . . I don't know." Europa sounded shaken and confused. "This is . .

. very unusual."

J.D. picked out the two predominant strands of discussion among her colleagues:

We can go home now.

Now we can stay.

"You had better follow us," Europa said. "To meet representatives of the Four Worlds. We have a great deal to talk about."

J.D. smiled, trying not to burst into tears.

"I'm sure that's true," J.D. said. "But you'll have to wait while we all discuss what to do next."

J.D. glanced at the members of the deep space expedition: Victoria and Satoshi and Stephen Thomas, Infinity and Esther, Crimson and Jenny, Chandra and Florrie Brown and Avvaiyar, Professor Thanthavong and Nikolai Petrovich and Griffith, Fox and Mitch and Lehua and Bay, Senator Derjaguin and Senator Orazio and Gerald Hemminge.

And finally, Zev. She ached for him to be with her. Their gazes touched. "I'm sorry about Nemo," Zev said. "But I want to tell you properly."

"I want that, too," she said.

She imagined an ocean, a small ocean with mysterious depths, a place where she and Zev could talk together in the language of the divers, the language of true speech.

VONDA N. MCINTYRE has been writing and publishing science fiction since she was 20. Her novels include Dreamsnake (winner of the Hugo Award, presented by the World Science Fiction Convention, and the Nebula Award, presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America), The Exile Waiting, and Superlurninal. She has written one children's book, Barbary. Her books and short stories have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Transition and Metaphase follow the alien contact team and the other characters introduced in Starfarers, one of the few novels ever to inspire a fan club before being written. She is currently working on Nautilus, which continues the story.

McIntyre has exhibited hunters and jumpers, organized conferences, observed humpback whales in Alaska, and gone white-water rafting in Idaho. She studies the martial art of Aikido, and recently attained the rank of shodan (first degree black belt).